FORT SMITH -- A Sebastian County man who said he fired in self-defense was charged with first-degree murder Wednesday in the fatal shooting of a Fort Smith man.
Denver Pennington, 29, of Hackett also was charged in Sebastian County Circuit Court with being a felon in possession of a firearm. Prosecuting Attorney Dan Shue also charged Pennington as a habitual criminal, proof of which during a trial would increase his sentences if he were convicted of murder and firearms charges.
The prosecuting attorney's case file on Pennington showed a felony burglary conviction in Texas in 2003 and a felony conviction for failure to register as a sex offender in Washington County in 2008.
Pennington was being held without bail Wednesday in the Sebastian County jail, according to a news release from the prosecutor's office. He is expected to be arraigned next week.
Pennington is accused of shooting Arthur McIntyre, 33, in the upper torso with a rifle about 2 a.m. Tuesday outside McIntyre's home at 3001 Alabama Ave.
A Fort Smith police probable cause affidavit said that after his arrest Tuesday, Pennington stated that McIntyre had a knife and was coming at him when he was shot.
The affidavit said a woman identified as Pennington's girlfriend, Cymanthia Vanmatre, was with Pennington and told police that McIntyre was not armed when he was shot.
Pennington and Vanmatre were two of three people who went to the Alabama Avenue home early Tuesday. According to the affidavit, Pennington told investigators that another man with them, identified only as Donny, had carried along guns.
McIntyre was drunk, Pennington told police, and at one point he shoved Pennington and grabbed a knife. Pennington tried to leave and grabbed one of the guns from the car for self-defense, Pennington reported.
Pennington told police he warned McIntyre when he stepped outside that he would shoot him if he didn't stop coming at him. According to the affidavit, Pennington said McIntyre would not stop, and he shot him.
The affidavit said Pennington changed his account, saying once that they were separated by a fence when he shot McIntyre and then saying McIntyre was on the same side of the fence as he was.
Pennington told police that he and Vanmatre drove off and he threw the gun out the window around Kay Rodgers Park in north Fort Smith. Police searched the area but did not find the gun, the affidavit said.
As detectives were interviewing witnesses after the shooting, the affidavit said, they received word from a police officer in Como, Texas, that Pennington's grandmother had reported that her grandson called her and told her he had shot someone.
The grandmother told Fort Smith detectives that when her grandson asked her what he should do, she told him to turn himself in. Instead, she said, he asked her to send him money, but she told him she couldn't give him any, the affidavit said.
McIntyre's housemate, Alexander Parrett, 26, witnessed the shooting but was too drunk just after the shooting to give useful information to detectives, according to a police shift summary Tuesday.
Later, Parrett picked Pennington out of a photo lineup as the person who shot McIntyre, the affidavit said. Detectives obtained a warrant for Pennington for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Detectives gave out a description of the car Pennington was believed to be riding in. Officers in Alma reported that they were watching a vehicle they believed Pennington was in. They arrested Pennington and Vanmatre shortly after, the affidavit said.
State Desk on 01/28/2016